The present invention relates to a bed base.
A bed base is a flexible part of a bed which rests in the bed frame or on legs (couches, settees, etc.) and on which the mattress lies.
Known are spring bed bases, formed by a wooden box with rigid cross bars fitted with springs and covered with fabric and metal bed bases with stretched wire gauze or netting. Known further are slat bed bases. These have a series of flexible slats, generally consisting of several thin slats of beech wood. At their ends the slats are fastened on a rigid frame, and they are often arched upward to increase the course of flexibility.
Bed bases with slat offer the advantage over spring bed bases of having a longer life. That is, springs become slack, while slats keep their quality.
However, slat bed bases, like the metal bed bases, have the disadvantage of showing a more or less great stiffness when one approaches the frame or the wooden box. That is, the slats, like the wire netting, are fastened on a wooden or metal frame, and it is owing to this fastening of their end on this immobile frame that said slats and said netting can acquire the desired elasticity. But it is the center of the slatted surface or of the gauze and not their edges that is elastic. This mechanical necessity therefore is a disadvantage since the bed base is soft at the end and pleasant only at its center.
Bed bases with slats have been made whose ends are mounted on the frame by means of springs. Such bed bases are described notably in EP-A-1,050,873, CH-A-399,712. However, on the one hand the presence of a frame to which the slats are fastened further limits the freedom of movement of the slats, and on the other hand the springs are of spring type metal or equivalent which limits their life.
Also there has been realized in U.S. Pat. No. 2,349,839 a bed base with slats the ends of which can be displaced vertically without being mechanically connected by a spring mounted on a frame. It is formed by units ("modules") composed of an upper horizontal slat rigidly mounted on a lower arched slat. The units are joined together on the one hand by a lower central beam on which they rest and on the other hand by three upper horizontal slats. However, the construction of this bed base does not permit obtaining satisfactory deformations because of the rigidity of the connections. This arrangement forms practically undeformable cylinder portion which can oscillate only very slightly around the beam.